Saturday, December 5, 2009

Last months were quite hectic. I've made lots of beaded things, but never had a chance to blog about them. But this is a special one.

It is made for a Master student we had in our lab. Ok, here it comes - she's one of the best students I've ever had over the years. As a token of appreciation for a great job that she did with us, a colleague of mine and myself have decided to make her a present - this necklace.

Even specialists in the field will not know what it represents. And I will not give a latin name of the fungus (because this blog post would otherwise come up in all Google-searches, so un-scientific!) ;) Let's just say that the bug that we are working on is a mold, originaly found on prunes and it loves lots of sugar.

Here are some real life scientific pictures of some of its parts (published online with kind permission of the person who took them: Jan Dijksterhujs of CBS, The Netherlands). Now you know what is that white pearly stuff that is growing out of the "prune" cab ;)The bug is a pain in the head to grow - it thrives in media with LOTS of sugar. And to get it a good medium for growth, one needs to melt all that sugar. And you can guess what happens if the temperature is too high, or if you melt it for too long? Yes, it caramelizes! And you (read: your student) has to start all over again... That's the meaning of those colors in the necklace.

I absolutely love this!! And so fun that it was inspired by science...gorgeous piece. My question is - how on earth do you find time to bead with two kids??! :) (I just had my second a few months ago and barely have time to sew a few beads on a piece each week...just started my fascination with beads this summer and it drives me crazy not to have time to really get into it right now!)